Martial Peak
chapter-5036

Soon, Tang Qun led Yang Kai to a Heaven Rank Pill Room. There was an Alchemy Furnace that was as tall as a Human in the Pill Room and the abstruse patterns engraved on it suggested that it was no ordinary artifact.

The Alchemy Furnaces that were placed in these Heaven Rank Pill Rooms were the best of the best in Blue Sky Pass and were personally created by the Artifact Refining Grandmasters from Divine Cauldron Heaven.

Such a high-quality Alchemy Furnace wasn’t the only one in the Heaven Rank Pill Room of course; to the other side of the Pill Room were five other Alchemy Furnaces of different sizes. The smallest one was only the size of a baby’s head while the largest one was as tall as three Humans stacked on top of each other. The one Yang Kai caught sight of upon entering the room was only medium-sized in comparison.

It was apparent that these Alchemy Furnaces were refined with various different situations in mind when it came to refining Spirit Pills.

Tang Qun explained the uses of these Alchemy Furnaces and passed Yang Kai a token, “There is a Grand Array in this Pill Room that is used to produce an Alchemy Flame. You’ll be able to control the Alchemy Flame after refining this token.”

Basically, every Alchemist had their own Alchemy Flame, and using their own Alchemy Flame would allow them to be entirely in their element when refining Spirit Pills. However, refining certain special pills was a time and labour-intensive process, so it would be better to make use of the Alchemy Flames in the Pill Rooms to save some energy.

Yang Kai used his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea when he practised Alchemy in the past. It was the best Alchemy Flame in the Alchemic Dao at that time. Nevertheless, as his cultivation improved and his Divine Sense became more refined, his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea could no longer keep pace with his needs and the Alchemy Flame in the Pill Room would undoubtedly be the best help for him now.

Yang Kai gratefully accepted the token.

Tang Qun went on to say, “You refine this first, Senior Brother. I’ll urge them to hurry up and prepare the herbs you requested.”

“Many thanks,” Yang Kai expressed his gratitude, and after Tang Qun left, he sat down cross-legged and started refining the token.

The token was a simple item, so just an hour later, he was done refining it. With the help of this token, Yang Kai could control the Grand Array in this Pill Room to draw on its Alchemy Flame.

Soon, all the herbs he requested were sent to him by Tang Qun. After a quick examination, Yang Kai confirmed that these herbs were exactly what he needed, and they came in a large quantity too.

“This Tang will stop bothering you then, Senior Brother. Please feel free to call on anyone if you need assistance or other materials.” Tang Qun bid him farewell and took his leave.

After he was gone, Yang Kai selected a suitable Alchemy Furnace in the Pill Room and organised the herbs so that he could use them when needed.

He hadn’t practised Alchemy for a long time. The last time he did so was when he was refining Heavenly Yuan Seal Stabilizing Pills in Void Land. His skills in Alchemy were somewhat rusty now.

Moreover, the pill recipe he obtained from the ancient Senior’s handwritten record was incomplete as the medium it was recorded on had aged and become tattered. There wasn’t a lot of useful information on it, and not a single pill recipe was complete.

In order to complete the pill recipe he was interested in, Yang Kai had to try out many different methods.

However, if his experiment turned out to be successful, the benefits it would bring to the Human Race would be immense. The prerequisite was that the Spirit Pills that were produced based on the pill recipe really had the effect described in the handwritten record.

Yang Kai then emptied his mind and started condensing the medicinal liquid. This step wasn’t difficult for him. With a high-quality Alchemy Furnace and a potent Alchemy Flame that he could make use of, he just had to be cautious. Experienced Alchemists usually wouldn’t make a mistake in this step. Only novices might fail at condensing medicinal liquid.

After he was done with condensing the necessary medicinal liquids, Yang Kai poured them into the Alchemy Furnace. He then focused on controlling the Alchemy Flame and meticulously refined the pills according to the process described in the handwritten record.

One hour later, a strange noise was heard coming from the Alchemy Furnace, then Yang Kai caught a whiff of something burnt. He froze for a bit, knowing that his attempt had failed this time.

With that said, he didn’t appear to be disappointed. He never expected to succeed in producing the pills on his first attempt; after all, the pill recipe was incomplete to begin with. He just wanted to familiarise himself with the medicinal efficacies and the process so that he could complete the pill recipe.

Only with a complete pill recipe would he stand a chance to refine useful pills.

Yang Kai cleaned up the Alchemy Furnace and threw the residue away. After taking a moment to rest and review, he began his second attempt.

As time passed, he became increasingly immersed in the process as he recalled the days when he used to practise Alchemy in the past.

He had not worked on improving his mastery of the Alchemic Dao for centuries, so his skills were indeed a bit rusty; however, he was taught Alchemy by the Heavenly Way itself back then. If he had persevered and moved forward in this Grand Dao, his mastery of Alchemy would have been just as great as the Alchemy Grandmasters in Blue Sky Pass.

Unfortunately, his time and energy were not infinite. The Martial Dao was the most important pursuit in his life, so he was willing to give up other things that would distract him from focusing on it.

As more and more herbs became burnt dregs, Yang Kai gained a better understanding of the pill recipe in the handwritten record. However, there was always a bottleneck he could not break through when trying to refine this pill.

Something essential was missing from the pill recipe in the handwritten record.

Yang Kai reckoned that this key component was some kind of Spirit Herb, though he didn’t know what it was. He could only try out different types of herbs to figure out what was missing. With that said, he wasn’t blindly carrying out experiments.

Since the handwritten record was found in the Senior Alchemist’s Small Universe, the herbs listed in this pill recipe were most likely grown in his medicine garden.

Therefore, the herbs Yang Kai had selected were the ones he could find in the medicine garden in the Sealed World with seemingly appropriate properties. He decided to experiment with all these herbs first, and if he still didn’t succeed, he would then come up with a new plan.

Those from the Pill Hall had given him their full support, so over the next month, Yang Kai had asked for more herbs from Tang Qun eight times. Every time, Tang Qun would always promptly send him what he requested.

However, Yang Qun was astounded at Yang Kai’s need for such a large amount of herbs as he wondered what kind of pills the latter was making. It had to be noted that Spirit Herbs on the Black Ink Battlefield were even more precious than cultivation resources. Although the Army Commanders had ordered them to fully support Yang Kai, they couldn’t possibly let him endlessly consume so many herbs without yielding any results.

One day, an energetic old man, whose hair and beard were grey with age, arrived at the Pill Hall. Wherever he went, the Alchemists would stop and call out, “Grandmaster Zhu Ge.”

This couldn’t be helped, as this old man was one of the top three Alchemy Grandmasters in Blue Sky Pass, Zhu Ge Ming. When it came to the Alchemic Dao, only the Hall Master and another Grandmaster were comparable to him in the entire Pill Hall. It could even be argued that he was the best Alchemist in Blue Sky Pass. Nevertheless, he was a whimsical man who didn’t know how to liaise with others. Otherwise, he would have become the Hall Master of the Pill Hall.

The current Hall Master had even declared that his skills in Alchemy were slightly inferior to those of Zhu Ge Ming.

When Zhu Ge Ming arrived at the Medicine Hall where herbs were managed, he knocked on the table and listed the herbs he needed.

The Deacon, who was in charge of the Medicine Hall, hurriedly invited him to have a seat before personally looking for the herbs the Grandmaster wanted.

A moment later, the Deacon came over and saluted Zhu Ge Ming, “Grandmaster Zhu Ge, the herbs you want are here; however, there’s a lack of Green Feather Rattan at the moment. I’ve asked someone to pick it from the medicine garden. I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Please bear with us.”

Zhu Ge Ming nodded and asked, “Has that old thing Zhou Fang been refining Universe Formulation Pills recently?”

Universe Formulation Pills were very high-grade Spirit Pills, while Zhou Fang was one of the top three Alchemy Grandmasters in the Pill Hall.

Other than the Hall Master, the two of them were the most important figures in the Pill Hall. However, they were considered rivals as they were experts in the same Dao. It had been thousands of years since they arrived at Blue Sky Pass, but they had never stopped competing against each other in the Alchemic Dao. Certainly, they had also never stopped arguing as neither of them was willing to make a concession.

Apart from the Hall Master, only Zhu Ge Ming and Zhou Fang were able to refine Universe Formulation Pills in the entire Blue Sky Pass. Green Feather Rattan was the main ingredient for refining Universe Formulation Pills, and it wasn’t needed for producing other pills. That was the reason Zhu Ge Ming had this speculation.

Upon hearing that, the Deacon shook his head, “Grandmaster Zhou didn’t take it. It was Junior Brother Tang Qun.”

Zhu Ge Ming frowned, “What does that brat Tang Qun need Green Feather Rattan for?”

There was a helpless smile on the Deacon’s face as he replied, “I have no idea. However, he said that it was Yang Kai who wanted those herbs. Moreover, the Army Commanders have ordered us to provide all the support he needs.”

“Yang Kai?” Zhu Ge Ming arched his brow, “That Yang Kai?”

Although the Grandmaster didn’t speak clearly, the Deacon understood him as he nodded, “Yes, that Yang Kai.”

Yang Kai had practically become a household name in the Blue Sky Pass. Even though those from the Pill Hall had not been on the front lines of the fight against the Black Ink Clan, they had all heard that Yang Kai as his arrival had brought a lot of good news to the soldiers in the Inner Sanctum. He had created a way that could help the Humans from the different Great Passes purify Black Ink Strength after all.

“He’s also well-versed in Alchemy?” Zhu Ge Ming was slightly surprised.

The Deacon looked around, and upon making sure that no one else was around, he said, “Perhaps he knows a little about Alchemy, but he’s definitely not an expert. Over the past month, he has used up many rare herbs. I’ve asked Junior Brother Tang Qun about it, but he said that Yang Kai hasn’t even produced a single Spirit Pill. I’m sure you’re aware that Green Feather Rattan is only used to refine Universe Formulation Pills, so we don’t have a lot of it in reserve. He has practically used up all of our stock over the past month, and I haven’t even included the other herbs.”

Upon hearing that, Zhu Ge Ming furrowed his brow, “Isn’t he just causing trouble, then?”

The Deacon nodded repeatedly, “I agree with you. The herbs in the Inner Sanctum are precious, and every herb wasted could have been used to save a soldier at a critical moment; however, since the Army Commanders have given the order, we can only oblige.”

Zhu Ge Ming’s face fell, “Where is Yang Kai?”

The Deacon replied, “Junior Brother Tang Qun has helped him settle down in Heaven Rank Pill Room 3.”

Zhu Ge Ming rose from the chair, “I’ll have a look.”

A shocked Deacon hurriedly dissuaded him from doing that, “Grandmaster, please do not make things difficult for Yang Kai. It was the Army Commanders’ order, after all.”

“So what if they’re the Army Commanders? If they’re so capable, they wouldn’t have to consume the Spirit Pills this Zhu refines when they’re injured,” After finishing his words, he left the place in a fury.

The Deacon was dumbfounded. He felt heartbroken that Yang Kai had wasted so many herbs, so he just wanted to whine about it in front of Zhu Ge Ming a little. It never crossed his mind that he would create such trouble.

He was fully aware of Zhu Ge Ming’s temperament. Things would get ugly if the Grandmaster got into a conflict with Yang Kai.